


Potential

by JCapasso



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 09:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24967621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: Elena chooses Damon and rushes to make sure he knows it before he dies. Unfortunately, she had no idea what she was walking into.
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	Potential

Elena didn’t catch all of the conversation Matt was having, but she caught enough of it. “We have to go back,” she said desperately. “Listen to me Matt, if Klaus was the one that turned their bloodline then they’re all gonna die.” When he just kept driving and didn’t say anything, she snapped and yelled at him. “We have to go back, Matt!” 

Matt sighed as he braced himself to break the news. “Elena…”

“What?” she said irritated.

“Damon’s not with them,” he told her gently. 

“What?” she breathed out this time in horror. 

“He’s a hundred miles out of town. I can keep driving to him or I can turn around and go back to Stefan,” he offered sadly. “It’s your choice.”

Elena felt her throat closing up at Matt’s word. Her choice. That’s what it all came down to in the end. She had procrastinated too much in making it and now the universe itself was forcing it on her. There was no more time. It was now or never. There wasn’t even really a choice. Her heart had decided a long time ago. She just needed to accept it. “Keep going,” she said tightly, tears leaking from her eyes. As much as it would hurt never seeing Stefan or Caroline or Tyler again, she could live with that. She couldn’t live with never seeing Damon again. He couldn’t die without knowing how much she loved him. 

Matt nodded tensely. He had suspected her choice for a while. Especially after the conversation they’d had in her room earlier. He thought it was a mistake, but it was her mistake to make. He continued on to the address that Stefan had sent him as quickly as he could. When they pulled into the parking lot, Elena was out of the truck almost before it stopped and racing inside. 

Damon jumped when the door flew open and spun to look, his jaw dropping when he saw her. “Elena? What are you doing here? How did you get here?” Elena just jumped in his arms and kissed him like there was no tomorrow, which there might not be for him. He spun her around returning the kiss with just as much fervor. He still needed the answers to his questions though. As much as part of him wanted nothing more than to completely lose himself in her for the little bit of time he had left, he needed to know. “’Lena?” he breathed out questioningly when they broke for air. 

“I’m sorry, Damon. I love you. I should have told you before. I should have…I’m sorry,” she sniffled, tears running down her cheeks. 

Damon let out a heavy breath. It wasn’t the questions he was asking, but it was a far more important answer. He no longer cared how she got here. “I love you, Elena. And I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my remaining time on this earth than with you.” He pulled her into another long loving kiss. 

The next thing he knew she was falling and as he caught her, it took a moment for his brain to catch up with what happened. Her neck was broken, Rebekah was bursting into flames with the white oak stake in her back, and Alaric was falling to the ground behind her withering away. All Damon’s focus was on Elena though as he cradled her body with a scream of denial. No. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t supposed to die. He was. She was supposed to live a long happy life. When Matt came in screaming her name, he didn’t even have the energy to lash out like he usually did. He didn’t have the energy to respond at all as the tears poured down his cheeks. 

Matt went back outside, with his own tears, unable to stay in that room one second longer. As if all the bodies weren’t bad enough, the vampire kneeling on the floor falling to pieces was probably the worst part. Damon’s grief was like a heavy weight that threatened to crush him and he couldn’t handle any more on top of his own. He took out his phone and called Jeremy. He needed to know. They needed to get here, and hopefully, if they did survive, Stefan would come along to keep Damon from doing something stupid. 

Damon had no idea how long he’d been cradling her body, but he knew that he would have been dead by now if Klaus’ death was going to kill him too. It looked like he was going to have to do this the hard way. He laid her down gently and brushed her hair back from her face before leaning down to press a lingering kiss to her forehead. “I love you, baby. I’ll see you soon,” he promised, hoping against hope that he was right, but even if he wasn’t it wouldn’t change his mind. He reached over and pulled the white oak stake from Rebekah’s back and put it to his own chest. 

“Damon, don’t!” Matt called out, having come back inside after his call but giving them some space. 

“Fuck off, Donovan,” Damon snapped, making no move to stop. 

“At least wait until the others get here. They at least deserve to know what happened,” Matt tried the only thing he could think of. Hopefully his brother would be able to get through to him because Matt wasn’t the slightest bit equipped for this. Partially because he wasn’t completely against the action Damon was about to take. The only reason he stopped it is because it was what Elena would have wanted. Damon sighed and let the stake fall from his hands with a slow nod. He wasn’t going to let them talk him out of it though. 

It seemed like both forever and no time at all before Jeremy, Stefan, and Caroline came barreling in, and Damon was still on his knees next to Elena’s body with the stake beside him. “Damon…” Stefan said gently holding out his arms to stop the others from rushing forward. 

“Rebekah killed her,” Damon said emotionlessly, tears still streaming down his cheeks. “Alaric staked her at the same time before he died too.” 

“I know,” Stefan said softly as he crept forward. “Come on. Let’s get her taken care of.”

Damon reached over and picked up the stake as he looked up from her body for the first time, meeting Stefan’s eyes. “Will you bury us together, brother?” he made his last request. 

“Damon, no!” Caroline cried, only to get pulled into Jeremy’s arms. Jeremy knew that if anyone could talk Damon out of this it was Stefan. 

“I will,” Stefan promised, tears in his own eyes. 

“You’re gonna let him do this?” Jeremy asked incredulously. 

“He won’t survive this,” Stefan said sadly. “And the world won’t survive what’s left of him.” He had taken this choice away from his brother once before and this one was even worse. Not only did his love for Elena far eclipse what he’d ever felt for Katherine, but Stefan knew now what Damon was capable of when he lost it. There would be no coming back from this for Damon. He had to let him go. 

Caroline pulled away from Jeremy’s arms and blurred forward, pulling Damon’s arm back just before he could plunge the stake in, only to find herself pinned against the wall by her throat as Damon snarled at her. “Don’t…touch…me.” 

“Damon, listen. Just use your nose, okay?” Caroline tried to reason. She realized that Stefan was too worried about his brother and Damon was too lost in grief to realize the obvious, but it had taken them almost two hours to get here. 

“You really think I want one of my last memories to be of the smell of her rotting body?” Damon snapped, squeezing her throat tighter in anger. 

Caroline was starting to understand what Stefan meant about the world not being able to survive him. All she could see in his eyes right now was death. She wanted to try to explain, but his grip on her throat was too tight for her to get words out. Thankfully, Stefan came to her rescue. “Damon, stop. She’s right.”

“What are you talking about?” Damon turned to glare at him. 

“She’s not decomposing,” Stefan said evenly. “You know what that means.” 

“What?” Damon’s grip on Caroline’s throat loosened and she fell to the floor coughing and gasping for breath. Matt rushed to her side while Jeremy headed for Elena. Damon took a long sniff of the air before saying, “That’s not possible…” 

“So I’m guessing you didn’t…” Stefan let the question hang. 

“No, of course not. It happened too fast for me to even have a chance. Besides I promised after last time that I would never do that to her again,” Damon said rushing back to her side and falling to his knees. 

“Well I know I didn’t. Caroline?” Stefan asked. 

“It wasn’t me,” she shook her head. “Maybe Rebekah did it before she killed her?” 

“No,” Stefan shook his head. “If that were the case she would have died when Rebekah did.” 

“Then how did this happen?” Matt asked worriedly, getting the gist of what was going on. 

“Wait…you said you took her to the hospital, Jeremy?” Stefan asked and Jeremy nodded, confused as to what that had to do with anything. “Damon, didn’t you say that one of the doctors there hijacked your blood to experiment with healing people?” 

“Dr. Fel. Yeah. You don’t think…”

Jeremy sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s who she saw there. Dr. Fel,” he admitted. 

Before anything else could be said, Elena gasped for breath sitting up frantically. “Shh. Hey, it’s okay, ‘Lena,” Damon rushed to calm her. Jeremy stayed on her other side, but everyone else backed off to give her some space. 

“What happened?” she asked confused. 

After a look from Damon, everyone decided to let him explain. The fact that she came here in the first place made it clear what her choice had been and the man she loved should be the one to say it. “Rebekah killed you,” Damon said evenly. “But when you were at the hospital before…Dr Fel apparently injected you with vampire blood to heal you. At least that’s our best guess.”

“Aren’t you glad you didn’t stake yourself now?” Caroline couldn’t help but smirk at Damon. 

Elena’s freakout about the whole death and vampire thing came to a screeching halt at Caroline’s words and she didn’t even notice the glare that everyone else was sending her. “What?” Elena asked incredulously, glancing around at everyone before snapping her head back around to look at Damon. “What is she talking about?” 

Damon reached for Elena’s cheek and tried to explain as gently as he could. “I can’t live in a world where you don’t, baby. I just can’t.” 

Elena looked heartbrokenly at him, the dried tear tracks covering his face and his broken words derailing her tirade and she took a different tact. “That’s not the solution, Damon. I know you tried that with Katherine too, but you got over it…you moved on.”

“That was different,” Damon said firmly. “Very different. I never loved Katherine. Not really. She was just a lie that I let myself believe because I wanted it so badly.” 

“Wanted what?” Elena asked, barely noticing everyone else clearing out to give them some privacy. 

“A love that consumed me,” Damon breathed out, looking in her eyes. 

Elena sucked in a sharp breath as a memory came roaring back into her head. The kind stranger at the side of the road. The instant connection she felt. A love that consumed her, passion, adventure, danger…he wanted her to get everything she wanted out of life. He made her forget. “You compelled me,” Elena said hurt as her eyes refocused on him. 

Damon winced and nodded. “Which one did you get back?” he had to ask. 

“The side of the road…there was more than one? How many times did you compel me?” she asked irritated. 

“Only twice,” Damon assured her. 

Elena took a few deep breaths and pushed away her anger. It was a lot harder to do than usual. Maybe because of the whole heightened emotions thing. She didn’t want to fight with him though, and changed the subject. “So…I’m in transition now?” she asked worriedly. 

“Yes,” Damon said sadly, leaning his head against hers. “But at least we get a chance for a proper goodbye this time.”

“You don’t want me to turn?” Elena asked hurt. 

“Baby, I would give anything for forever with you. You have to know that. But I know that you don’t want this. You’ve never wanted this. I didn’t used to get that before, but I do now and no matter how much ever nerve in my body wants to force some blood down your throat…I can’t. I took that choice away from you once before and it’s my greatest regret. I can’t be selfish with you.” 

Elena felt another memory slam into her mind. Standing in her room. Damon brought her necklace back. Said he was being selfish by saying it. He loved her. Even back then. But he didn’t think he deserved her. His tears as he made her forget. Damon apparently didn’t notice this time because he was still talking when she refocused. “We can say our goodbyes and move on and hopefully we’ll see each other on the other side,” he told her, tears starting to fall again. 

Elena remembered the start of this conversation at that and shook her head. “Damon, no. You can’t…I can’t let you die for me.”

“It’s not for you, Elena. It’s for me. Because I can’t bear to live without you,” he told her. 

Elena’s tears spilled over again at that and she kissed him softly before burying her head in his neck. It didn’t matter what he said, it was for her. And if he was willing to die for her, the least she could do is live for him. “I’ll do it,” she told him. 

“Do what?” Damon asked, pulling back to look at her. 

“Complete the transition. I’ll turn,” she said seriously. 

“Why?” he asked worriedly. 

“Because I need to give living a chance before I just throw both our lives away. Because I owe it to /us/ to give us a chance. You say you can’t live without me, well I wouldn’t be able to enjoy any afterlife if I have to spend it wondering what we could have had if I hadn’t given it up,” she told him. 

“Are you sure?” Damon asked, feeling a well of hope build up in his heart. “Really, really sure?” 

“I’m positive, Damon. I want forever with you too,” Elena said, pressing a hand to his cheek and he pulled her into a long loving kiss.


End file.
